New Delhi: William and Kate, the royal couple who are on a seven –day tour of India and neighbouring Bhutan made a visit to an NGO working for the empowerment of the future of destitute children based at New Delhi railway station. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge planned the visit after learning about the work of Salaam Baalak Trust which supports the street children who end up fending for themselves at different railway stations. In order to keep away the crowds, the details of the visit were not announced. The organization supports the most vulnerable youngsters who end up at the major transport hub after running away from home or being abandoned by parents by providing physical and medical care as well as educational, creative and social interaction.
First they visited the Trust’s contact centre near the New Delhi railway station.On average, 6,600 children make their way to the train station every year to escape from different personal circumstances and the trust focuses mainly on their mental health.Then they visited the temporary shelters of the trust close to the railway station.Also the couple had the chance to meet the city walk guides who help the children rescued for guided tours.
Later, the royal couple had lunch with prime minister Narendra Modi who visited the UK in January and had lunch with the Queen. William and Kate sat down for informal talks with the Indian premier in New Delhi’s Hyderabad House, a former royal residence of Maharajas that has hosted heads of state from across the globe.
On Monday, at a special garden party celebrating the Queen’s 90th birthday, which falls next week, William paid tribute to his grandmother, describing her as a “wonderful great-grandmother” for his children and very much his “boss”. The Duke also said she was a “guiding force” for her family.
The royal couple will later travel to Kaziranga National Park which is also a World Heritage site of global importance in the state of Assam, where over the next few days they will learn about the people and wildlife in the area. It is home to elephants, water buffalo, the endangered swamp deer, tigers, and two-thirds of the world’s population of the Indian one-horned rhinoceros. William has been campaigning for a number of years to protect endangered animals, and park officials said yet another rhino had just been poached, bringing the total number killed in Kaziranga this year to six.